Henceforward there was no hope of averting the revolution. Charles and Henrietta had to face the wrath of their people, and they knew that they were alone. The Pope, from whom they had hoped so much, left them to their fate, and Richelieu, though his attitude had been sometimes a little ambiguous, was the friend of their foes, and felt towards them an hostility the result of the history of the last fifteen years, which was a continual encouragement to those who were arrayed against them. It is true that many Englishmen, terrified at the extremes to which the Puritans were rushing, rallied round the King,[260] seeing in him, as he ever saw in himself, the defender of the ancient constitution; but even so the horizon was dark, and it was to grow darker to the end. "A northern King shall reign," ran the prophecy of Paul Grebner, who was in England in the great days of Elizabeth, "Charles by name, who shall take to wife Mary of the Popish religion, whereupon he shall be a most unfortunate Prince."[261] [Footnote 234: See particularly the dispatches of Montreuil (MS. Français, 15,995) and Salvetti (Add. MS., 27,962), and Rosetti's remark in a letter to Cardinal Barberini (August 10th, 1640) that if something were not done the Puritans would so increase "che metteranno un giorno in pericolo di distruggere la monarchia di Inghilterra!"--Roman Transcripts P.R.O.] [Footnote 235: Mme de Motteville: _Mémoires_ (1783), I, 244. Cf. Montglas: _Mémoires_ (1727), t. II, p. 67. "Il [Richelieu] avoit toujours des sommes d'argent entre les mains pour distribuer à l'insu de tout le monde à gens inconnus qui faisoient ensuite des effets mervellieux qui surprenoient tout le monde: comme depuis par la guerre civile d'Angleterre dont il étoit auteur et qu'il fomentoit pour empêcher les Anglois jaloux de la prosperité de la France de traverser ses desseins."] [Footnote 236: Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 47.] [Footnote 237: MS. Français, 15,995.] [Footnote 238: Bellièvre, the French ambassador in England, wrote, in August, 1639, of a _femme de chambre_ of the Queen who was going to France, that she was "très bien sans l'esprit de la Reine sa maitresse."--Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 47.]